Horror, Mild
by Ficti0nisreality
Summary: The protection of the village is the only thing Naruto lives for. He will do whatever it takes to protect Konoha from any who would do it harm, even if that means some innocent people have to get hurt. (realistic, amoral) Anbu Naruto, rampant ooc-ness.


The Hokage looked up just a second before a man in an Anbu mask and black cloak materialized in his office. He had been expecting him, he set down his brush and didn't waste any time with formalities, these two were the most important ninja in the village and had no time to spare. They had worked together for more than twenty years and prevented some great catastrophes only because they were both quick and to the point.

Thankfully though the head of Anbu wasn't in his office to help coordinate a defense network or major assassination, they were here to take steps to stop a problem before it got out of hand.

Over the yearsAnbu agents were seen as less and less as esteemed ninja and more like the ninja who got the 'dirty work'. While this was true, it was causing problems, less people joined Anbu every year and the Ninja council had recently voted to delegate any mission classified as an assassination to Anbu. The ninja of the general forces were more inclined to big battles and dramatics than subtlety and personal sacrifice for these reasons the council just dumped the assassinations and more underhanded missions onto Anbu. Most Assassination missions were pitifully easy, and to have A ranked shinobi completing them was just a waste of time. The Anbu commander had come up with a plan that while somewhat imorral, was admittedly the best option, and it was Hiruzen's duty to make best choice for the village.

"I have made my choices," the cloaked and masked man said. His voice was soft and quite youthful to the hokages ears, he didn't know much about this man other than that he was approaching fifty and probably one of the few in the village who could fight him on equal ground. He had never even seen the mans face, as he had always worn his unadorned white mask, but he was extremely capable and motivated only by the continuity of the village.

"Who?" the Hokage was nervous for the news, he had debated with himself long and hard about the proposal by the Anbu leader and had finally given in, after all they did need children for certain missions which had traditionally been given to Danzo's group, now disbanded, and the idea of using them for the low level assassinations sent to Anbu was quite practical. Children often went unnoticed, trained recruits would be a huge asset to the village as they could get in places adults couldn't and slip past guards with little suspicion. Obviously in the end, he had caved and given the go ahead, orphans under eight years old were the prime target as they were the perfect age to train and with no parents had little holding them back.

The Anbu chief dutifully began reciting the names and ages of the children chosen for the newly formed Junior Anbu Black-Ops training program. They were all aged between six and seven, and with proper training they would be able to be sent out on missions within a year. On the twelfth name the Hokage was slightly taken aback.

"Uzumaki Naruto, aged six point five," The masked man stopped then and waited for the Hokage's response, he had gotten through the entire list of the twelve boys and girls who would be thrust into the cut throat life of a ninja for the sake of the village. Maybe some would think he was crazy for recruiting children, but these children were different from the average child in the village. They knew loss and they knew pain, yet they all loved the village. They would be the perfect tools for assassinations and there were always a small number of missions which needed kids for one reason or another. They had a lot to gain and little to lose, these kids were just orphans no one wouold be upset at their deaths and they wouldn't know enough to hurt the village if they were captured.

When the Hokage failed to comment on his last choice the man continued.

"They are all outsiders of a sense but are extremely motivated to become ninja, and they love the village despite not having much assosciation with it. They're all perfect candidates." His voice, as always didn't give anything away. Ths man was a blank slate eve to the Hokage.

Finally the Hokage asked what the Anbu was waiting for,

"Why Uzumaki Naruto? Isn't he resentful of the villagers for their exclusion of him?"

The Hokage tried to supress the painful memories dredged up whenever he saw or heard of his traitorous young friends son. He had loved Kushina with all his heart, but when she came back from a mission pregnant by an unknown father she had been ridiculed by the village. her mental stability had gone down after the three year mission and after enduring the taunts for months she finally snapped just a week after Naruto's birth. The dirty looks became too much and she massacred two hundred and thirty six villagers and forty-one ninja in the space of five minutes before the anbu commander arrived on the scene and took her out. Hiruzen had been out of the village and was devestated when he heard the news. Kushina was remembered as one of the fiercest ninja in the village and ironically she regained the nickname she had earned during the war, the villagers called her the Red Death,and if they were naming her with particular vitriol The Red Whore

While the loss of life hadn't been too catastrophic some of those killed happened to be well liked performers, and one of the ninja killed was known as a sort of figurehead to the village. Namikaze Minato had been set to become the next Hokage but was taken out by The Red Death in his attempts to calm her down.

Minato and Kushina were like his own children to Hiruzen, he'd been devestated and furious, and even now six years after he didn't know what to think of Kushina's betrayal. A part of him still loved her when she had first betrayed them but he had killed it as the years went by. He was Hokage and had little enough room in his life for loving a family much less a traitor. At first he thought he might need to protect Naruto from angry mobs, the village as a whole did hate Kushina enough that it wasn't so far fetched they might hate her son too. However he had been told by orphanage staff that he was a distant child and had no friends, but that he had no trouble with bullies and most were content to leave him to his own devices. The same was true of the villagers, a report had told him, they didn't actively antagonise him or tell him outright not to come around their stores, but they didn't welcome him warmly. Hiruzen didn't think this was so odd, the boy would only remind people of the tragedy with his presence. Hiruzen was relieved to stay out of the boys life and content to let the boy grow up with no intervention on his part. He felt no desire to be a presence in his life, as he would have been had his Mother not shown her true insanity. All his loyalties to Kushina had died with Minato and he felt only sadness, betrayal and undeniably a fair bit of hatred for Kushina more than anything else, and certainly no sense of responsibility for her child.

Hiruzen looked up from his hands, contemplating his most trusted ninja's choice of Naruto for the program. He would certainly not be missed by any, and it would be simple for his death to be faked and passed off as a crazed vengeance killing. And the Anbu commander informed him spies believed from his body language and analysis of the few words he spoke to anyone that Naruto loved the village despite his isolation, a trait common in all the best ninja.

With the proper training Naruto would be a strong asset to the vilage. The Junior Anbu Corps. was set to revolutionize Konoha, but first they needed capable 'children', already children only in age. While Hiruzen loved Konoha with all his heart he was worried for the future. He needed to start taking measures to strengthen the village or he may be the Hokage who let the Village Hidden in the Leaves fall from her perch as the most powerful of the ninja villages.

The Junior Anbu Corps. was the perfect way to start, small children who were trained properly would never arouse the suspicion of most of the village's assassination targets, who were generally untrained criminals or government officials with little protection.

The problem with assasssination missions however was the new generations reluctance to get their hands dirty. A perfect ninja would sell their soul in a heartbeat to protect their village, but the people of the leaf village too often believed a ninja was a noble warrior rather than a cut throat. Thats all well and good if the villagers believe this, but if the ninja start to think they should be honorable that would be problematic. Assassinations were reserved for anbu a long time ago when the general forces ninja began to claim it was too dangerous for B and C rank missions, Hiruzen went along with it to appease his ninja they could easily shuffle things around but eventually as the years passed Anbu shrunk. No one wanted to be anbu anymore becasue all ninja knew they were the ones who did the 'dirty work' all some cared about now was their image.

The benefits of the Junior Anbu Corps. far outweighed any drawbacks, children would make perfect spies and even better assassins and if they were used soley for special missions that needed a child and easy assassinations and spying missions the regular Anbu would be much more flexible. Hiruzen wasn't planning on sending them out without proper training, and they woud certainly not be sent on anything above a high B rank for years. But despite these precautions he knew many of the recruits would die, could he sentence them to that death? Everyday he did it, send ninja out on missions to benefit the village. Many never returned, and that was on him. Everyday he did it with no regrets, the village was his top priority. This time he only hesitated because they were so young, but he wasn't the Hokage for nothing he would do what was best for the village, always.

"Start their training immediately, and let me know when you think they'll be ready for missions," he said quietly.

"Yes, Hokage-sama" the other man said. He was used to waiting for the Hokage to think things over, he always thought long and hard when the Anbu commander was involved and this case was no different. As he shunshinned away his mind turned to the Uzumaki child, he was perhaps the most promising of the draftees, driven, intelligent and unassuming, he could be trained to kill his heart for the village and the Anbu could see him becoming a great weapon. And that's all that mattered.


End file.
